Institution of Engineers Australia
Victoria Division
Engineering Heritage Branch

Case Studies in the Preservation of
Historic Engineering Works

IEA Eminent Overseas Speaker
Keynote Speaker at First International Engineering Heritage Conference, Newcastle

Dr. Emory Kemp
Director, Institute for the History of Technology and Industrial Archaeology
West Virginia University, USA.

Tuesday 17th September 1996

6:00pm
Light refreshments from 5:30pm

Engineers House
21 Bedford Street, North Melbourne

Historic preservation in America, as an organised discipline, is less than a century old. Such activities traditionally emphasised high-style domestic and public architecture firmly in the hands of architects, who have made great strides in conservation techniques of a wide variety of building materials.

As basic industries and transportation systems have waned in America, there has been an increasing interest in preserving artifacts and entire industrial sites as poignant examples of the nation's industrial revolution. The preservation of historic engineering monuments has attracted a truly interdisciplinary cadre to this field and, in a larger sense, offers the possibility of a new alliance between the humanities and engineering, not only in the academy but also in the preservation field.

The fundamentals of preservation, particularly engineering techniques, are illustrated with the restoration of:

• patented Col.Steven H. Long Covered Bridge 1894 at Ripley, West Virginia,
• the Water Tower 1893, Louisville, Kentucky,
• the renowned Wheeling Suspension Bridge of 1849, and
• the Beehive Coke Ovens at Bretz, West Virginia.

These examples will serve as the basis for examining future directions in techniques used for preservation, and equally important, the role of engineers in this rapidly developing field.

Please register with IEAust. Tel: 9329 8188 Fax: 9326 6515
to indicate numbers for catering arrangements.